Monday, 1 June 2015

The Month of May As a Handmaker

In the sewing blogging community, Me-Made-May is a thing and came about in 2010 (really? Where does the time go) via the refashioning fairy godmother Zoe at her blog So Zo, What Do You Know? This was my first year documenting what I wore for this particular month, because really it's a great way to wear what you make, instead of just make and sew and create and not have the day to day wear out of the clothing.

The last time I followed the 'Photo Everyday, Handmade Everyday' like this was for Self Stitched September in 2011 (and also in 2010) because I am fickle and don't really like the 'me-made' grammar as I like writing how I talk, and I never say 'Me-Made' (it's also spring in September and a better month for documenting clothing/taking photos in my opinion)... but this year, I decided to get over myself and get my selfie stick (NOT) out for a bit of handmade celebration!

To prepare I made a couple of tshirts, one a refashion, but that's about it... but you should know that last year (am I broken record yet?) I moved from Melbourne to Shanghai and did a complete wardrobe overhaul before moving (garage sales, markets & donating to the op shop) so hadn't actually brought much handmade stuff with me. Let's have a look!

What Did I Discover:

You can see ALL my outfits above, in chronological order, left to right etc... and I found I used the filter AMARO all the freaking time in Instagram... but on the sewing topic, I started to feel annoyed about not having exactly what I wanted to wear to suit the weather probably by the first week. Not good!

The weather changed a bit, so luckily I had my leggings for the cooler days, but overall I just felt like I was repeating outfits all the time... and usually I like to space out the same outfits a lot more... sometimes even going two weeks before wearing an outfit again. I felt restricted and annoyed that I couldn't find a tshirt so I can just bum around in my shorts or Uniqlo trousers.

So I need to sew more clothes, with more variety... I was surprised how much black & white prints I have... or blue and white... so I would like to add more colour... more block colour and some different print dresses or skirts.

The Repeats

But actually, while I felt I wore these things at least 5 times during the month, I only wore them 3 times... so maybe I was a little hard on myself... but I just remember feeling limited by my handmade wardrobe each day... rather than just picking and choosing easily like I did in 2011.

The Cop Out!

But, there were two days, where I was a little 'Ah Fuck It' and just wore RTW items with my handmade cowl. I would wear this and another thicker scarf somedays through springtime, but during this month felt like I wanted to wear something different than what my handmade wardrobe offered... cop out!

What Did I Sew during MMM?

I made 3 new things and refashioned a top from a cardigan to a singlet, and the neon fern knit items were in the last week (I haven't blogged them yet, will do soon) because I just had enough of wearing the same shapes and colours.

What Do I Wanna Do Now?

Well, now the month is over, I do want to look at some of my fabrics in the stash, think about what to sew next and what will be appropriately cool for summer... it gets HUMID here. Any tips for intense humidity?

I absolutely know I will make some By Hand London Holly jumpsuit trousers next week... as I have a zipper and fabric all ready... but realistically I should make the blouses (posh tshirts really) to go with them... in fact, I might not actually have the weather for trousers in the next month. So, you can see I have a bit of planning to do... as of course I wanna wear handmade as much as possible... but really need a better handmade wardrobe to do so.What About the Photos?

I'mreally happy with my photos, I didn't want to do mirror photos and I love cropping and taking different angles with my phone... so while they're not super stylised designed ones where all the flatlays and white backgrounds make you think everything is perfect... I feel they're really to my character. AMARO FTW.

Did you follow the MMM'15 challenge this year? Do you like challenges, wardrobe or sewing ones? After a lot of sewing challenges in my sewing career (LOL) I am not super big on them... but after this month, I feel like I have some ideas of where to take my sewing and wardrobe next... so that's super positive!

Love to Zo and again congrats on a big month of handmade clothing all around the world!